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Certified home energy raters are going through the process of meeting RESNET's new combustion safety requirements this year, but word on the street is that many raters are procrastinating. "Only 45% of our raters have completed the requirements so far," said Energy Vanguard's lead trainer, Dr. Allison Bailes. "Another 13% have signed up for classes, but that still leaves 42% of our raters uncommitted. And that's despite my weekly haranguing!"

Energy Vanguard has put together an online CAZ training course to supplement the RESCAZ simulation and our in-person classes. For HERS raters who are also certified as BPI Building Analysts, the online course will satisfy RESNET's requirements. The video below is one part of our online CAZ training and tells HERS raters how to make the most of their practice time with RESCAZ, the online combustion safety simulation.

Energy Vanguard's president, Dr. Allison Bailes, will teach a three-hour workshop called What You Need to Know About HVAC to Work with HVAC Pros at the Mid-Atlantic Sustainability Conference in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Aimed at architects, engineers, builders, raters, and students, the session will cover:

RESNET will require all HERS raters to be certified in combustion safety and work scope development. All new raters trained in 2014 will need to demonstrate those skills before they can be certified. Raters who were already certified prior to this year, as well as rater candidates coming into 2014, will need to add this to their certification before 2015. HERS raters who are also BPI-certified aren't completely exempt from the requirements but do get a special pass.

RESNET, in case you haven't heard, will require† all HERS raters to be certified in combustion safety and work scope development. Yep. All new raters trained in 2014 will need to demonstrate those skills before they can be certified. Raters who were already certified prior to this year, as well as rater candidates coming into 2014, will need to add this to their certification before 2015. How does one do that?

Energy Vanguard's founder and president, Dr. Allison Bailes, is becoming a popular speaker at events in the field of building science, green building, and energy efficiency. To make it easier for you to find out when and where his upcoming speaking events are, we have created a special page on the Energy Vanguard website to list them all. The list also includes events that from the past, going back to the beginning of 2013.

Energy Vanguard has hired Alexander S. Bell to head the HVAC design team as well as to help with training, consulting, and quality assurance. Andy, as he is known, comes with two decades of home building experience, first with Casas por Cristo in Mexico and then with Habitat for Humanity in Alabama.

The 2014 RESNET conference will be in Atlanta, where Energy Vanguard is based. Each year, RESNET asks for session proposals from those interested in attending the conference and then allows anyone to vote for the proposals they'd like to see at the conference. Jeffrey Sauls and Allison Bailes are listed on the seven proposals below and would like to ask for your votes for any or all of them.